DC Velocity - May 2012

DC has zero tolerance
for landfill waste

A lot of companies strive to reduce waste, but that’s not good enough for DuPont’s Building Innovations division. Under its “Drive to Zero” landfill program, the chemical manufacturer’s construction materials unit tries to completely eliminate landfill waste at its plants, offices, and DCs.

Earlier this year, the Drive to Zero program was honored with a 2011 DuPont Sustainable Growth Excellence Award for its contribution to the global giant’s sustainable growth mission. Remarkably, the program achieved its goal of reducing Building Innovations’ landfill waste to zero from 81 million pounds annually in just three years.

To achieve that objective, DuPont Building Innovations turned to some of its suppliers for help. One was Exel, the North American supply chain management subsidiary of Deutsche Post DHL. A team at the Lockport, N.Y., distribution center that Exel operates for DuPont Building Innovations found that even after implementing a host of recycling processes, two waste streams remained: a small amount of unrecyclable garbage and fragments of DuPont’s Corian solid material, which is used for countertops.

For Drive to Zero, Exel and DuPont collaborated to eliminate this remaining waste. Their solution included hiring a company to grind the Corian material into a saleable product used in road aggregate; composting food waste and utilizing the compost to fertilize trees on the property; and shipping the remaining waste to a nearby energy-from-waste facility, where it is incinerated and turned into energy to power the electrical grid.

In addition to participating in the Drive to Zero program, the Lockport facility was a pilot site for Deutsche Post DHL’s “GoGreen” climate-protection program and is a partner in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Waste Wise program. ;

inbound

Out-of-this-world outsourcing

Logistics outsourcing is scheduled to head into uncharted territory sometime this month when a private company ships commercial cargo to the International Space Station. At press time, Space Exploration Technologies, known as SpaceX, was scheduled to launch its Dragon spacecraft on May 7 from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying about 1,200 pounds of cargo for use by personnel living on the space station.

The demonstration project is part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Commercial Orbital Transportation Services/Commercial Resupply Service program. If the SpaceX mission is successful, NASA says, the Dragon is expected to begin regular supply runs to the space station. The spacecraft can also carry cargo back to Earth, such as materials from research projects conducted in the orbiting laboratory.

NASA is also collaborating with a second commercial transportation provider, Orbital Sciences Corp., which builds and operates satellites and launch vehicles. The company will launch its own spacecraft from Virginia later this spring to demonstrate its ability to provide logistics services to the International Space Station.

For more about NASA’s foray into transportation outsourcing, go to www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/cargo/index.html. ;

When you get a press release with a headline like “Dedola Obliterates 3PL Industry with New 10PL Service,” you have to sit up and take notice. “10PL”? That unfamiliar term and the date of the release—just before April Fool’s Day—clued us in that this was no ordinary announcement.

With tongue in cheek, Los Alamitos, Calif.-based Dedola Global Logistics (DGL), a provider of logistics and international trade services to importers and exporters, announced that as of April 1, 2012, it had “revolutionized the logistics industry” and would “change the ‘PL’ landscape forever” by becoming the world’s first 10PL provider.

DGL, the release said, felt there has been an innovation void after the advent of third- and fourth-party logistics. “Why stop at four?” asks Chief Operating Officer Stephen Dedola. “Think about it: 10PL is more than three times greater than 3PL and two and a half times more efficient than your 4PL providers.” In a companion video, Dedola pokes fun at the vagueness of third-party providers’ promises.

That, in fact, is the serious message behind DGL’s April Fool’s Day prank. In addition to entertaining, the deliberately over-the-top press release (Sample: “We see 10PL as a holistic way for best-of-breed supply chains to create actual synergy in their logistics paradigm”) urges shippers to be wary of “style over substance” marketing pitches.

More information, including the video and a chart that traces the supposed evolution of logistics management from “1PL” to “10PL,” can be found at www.dedola.com/10PL. ;